This is story of our daughters Taylor and Lauren, both with profound hearing loss, and the journey of getting and utilizing cochlear implants. Both have congenital deafness due to the Connexin 26 gene mutation.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Taylor is doing really well. She had a great time with the grandparents. She is talking more and more. At 8 months post-activation, her receptive language is solidly in the 18 to 21 months range, with some skills in the 21 to 24 month range. In terms of speech, she is falling in the 18 to 21 month range. This is wonderful with only 8.5 months of listening age.

This is the link for last week's G lesson.

http://www.cochlearamericas.com/PDFs/Speech_Sounds_G_Plosive.pdf

For the current week, we are doing K. Taylor loves kitties! They are her favorite animal. We are going to try to focus on helping her learn verbs. Right now, she uses many nouns, but the only real verb she says is Go. We are going to try to expand that list, and hopefully using kitties in some role play with help us keep her engaged.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

This week, we've been working on G's! Derek and Taylor are staying with two sets of grandparents this weekend. They are geared up and ready to go! I found this on another blog and thought it was great for Mother's Day. HERE’S TO THE MOMS

Here’s to the Moms who may not have “signed up” to parent a deaf or hard of hearing child, but do so anyway with grace and love.

Here’s to the Moms who narrate every second of every day, not caring what others may think.

Here’s to the Moms who put miles on their cars driving back and forth to countless therapy sessions, doctor’s appointments, hearing aid fittings, cochlear implant mappings, and more.

Here’s to the Moms who work hard to be their child’s best advocate and primary language role model.

Here’s to the Moms who have had to learn a new language too fast full of Auditory Verbal/Auditory Oral terms and audiological jargon.

Here’s to the Moms who face the “experts” and fight for their child’s best interest in IFSP/IEP meetings and in those meetings where you are just trying to make the system better.

Here’s to the Moms who can wrestle two CIs or HAs onto a squirming toddler… and replace it 20-40 times each day, even in the car, without loosing their cool.

Here’s to the Moms who can cook dinner, answer the phone, and change a CI/HA battery without breaking a sweat.

Here’s to the Moms who constantly have to explain their child’s “equipment” and answer the question "are those forever?"

Here’s to the Moms who have ever felt the pain of having a child who is “different”.

Here’s to the Moms who never take a single word for granted.

Here’s to the Moms who never fail to astound me with their capacity to persevere… and to love.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

We have focused on F words for the two weeks. We've also been a sick house for the past 9 days. We missed Taylor's therapy appointment this week. Both kids have been sick and running fevers off and on. They have pretty bad coughs and no appetite. We're pretty sure it's the influenza, but keeping in the spirit of F words, the FLU. Taylor's fever got up to 101 degrees at one point. With all that she's gone through, this is the first time she's been sick other than a mild cold with runny nose.

Even with the illness, Taylor has said so many new things.

Puppy

Ut oh

Okay? ...she asked of Derek after he fell down.

Thank You

Derek!

Sleep

Choo (as she saw a train)

Where'd it go?

Yuck

Bird

Binky

Drink

It seems like she is adding multiple new words every day and it's harder for us to keep track. That's a good problem to have! Today, we are 8 months post-activation. Happy Mother's Day!